Their most solemn day of acting is the Lord's Day. I think I may
truly say that greater abominations were never practised among
people than at this day at Charles Stewart's Court. Fornication,
drunkenness, and adultery are esteemed no sins amongst them; so I
persuade myself God will never prosper any of their attempts.'[*]
In another letter we read that once, after a hunting expedition,
Charles and a gentleman of the bedchamber were the only two who
came back sober. Sir James Turner was mad when drunk, 'and that
was pretty often,' says Bishop Burnet.
[Footnote *: Letter from Mr. J. Butler, Flushing, December 2, 1656,
Thurloe State Papers, V., 645.]
But, of course, it was the business of the spies to blacken the
character of Charles; and there can be little doubt that, in spite
of his poverty and loose morals, he was well liked by the citizens
of Bruges, who, notwithstanding a great deal of outward decorum, have
at no time been very strait-laced. 'Charles,' we learn from a local
history, 'sut se rendre populaire en prenant part aux amusements de
la population et en se pliant, sans effort comme sans affectation,
aux usages du pays.' During his whole period of exile he contrived
to amuse himself.
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